In the mountains of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan, six thousand or so people live who look and sound very different from their neighbors. They claim to have lived in the area for thousands of years and they look to all intents and purposes, European.
Many of the Kalash are blond haired and blue eyed, somewhat of an anomaly in Pakistan! Some believe that that they are descendants of Alexander the Great’s army though their true ethnic origins are still unproven.
They have a significantly different outlook on life from the Muslims surrounding them – they are polytheistic and have a completely different folklore (which has been compared to that of ancient Greece).
DNA testing has not, however, produced any connection to Greek people. Yet although there is no genetic support for a Greek origin, the tests on the Kalash also showed no detectable East or South Asian lineages.
Taking in to account genetic drift it was then thought that the Kalash blood line originated in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus. However, another series of tests suggested that perhaps the Kalash are in fact
aboriginal to the area with only negligible contributions from external peoples. In other words, the jury is still out as to where they actually come from but it might well be exactly where they are right now.
They live in Kalasha Desh – which translates as the three valleys of the Kalash – and that is the limit of their people’s range. There are only around five thousand speakers of the language, Kalasha, left which in terms of a language means that it is critically endangered. However, it is thought that the language probably never had more than a few tens of thousands of speakers at any one time.
As their numbers are very small the culture of the people who surround them have had an impact. Many of the Kalash in two of the valleys have converted to Islam, probably around fifty percent. They still practice many of the traditional aspects of Kalash life though the non-converts call them ‘sheiks’. A third valley, known as Birir, still clings to the traditional way of Kalash life.
Image Credit Flickr User Manalahmadkhan
By some standards the Kalash are very poor and it is true that they are subsistence farmers. Kalash houses are typically made from Deodar trunk to an ancient design. They appear singly or stacked up against each other up vertiginous hillsides.
Yet even though the houses often look precarious, they are built on solid stone foundations. Many have inbuilt beehives, given the villagers access to honey close by. Life is, however, hard. Outbreaks of cholera still happen regularly in these remote villages.
In stark contract to the culture of Pakistan the Kalash do not separate the sexes or disapprove of contact between men and women of different families. However, there is the ‘bashelini’ – a house in the village where menstruating women are sent until they regain ‘purity’ and rituals must be performed before she can return to her husband.
Elopement is regular in Kalash society and – strangely – it occurs often among married women. The woman herself will write to the prospective groom and offer her hand, informing the new man how much her previous husband paid for her.
The Kalash have, for however long they have been in the Hindu Kush, made their livelihood by herding goats and farming. Yet tourism does not play a major part in their lives with many urban Pakistanis making the journey from the big cities to meet their light colored rustic neighbors.
The Kalash are protected by the government of Pakistan but their future is uncertain – particularly if the religion declines in to theocracy. There have been recent Taliban incursions and a Greek aid worker was kidnapped in 2009 (she was returned unharmed four months later after an outcry). However, their relative isolation may well ensure the Kalash survive.
First Image Credit Flickr User GroundReporter
Why the Panda is Black and WhiteThis is a superbly created piece of animation which captures the imagination. The world is monochrome until an invisible hand starts to ...
Lofoten – Arctic Circle AnomalyThe archipelago of Lofoten in Norway is north of the Arctic Circle. Yet throughout the year it has temperatures which belie its posi...
Fly Geyser – Not Quite of this WorldThey look as if they were taken on another planet, or at least on the set of a new and very expensive science fiction movie. Yet these pi...
The Lady and The ReaperAn old lady is nearing the end of her days and she longs to be with the husband she has lost. So, when death pays her a visit on nigh...
The Goat Tower - A Caprine CondominiumWhat do you do when you own a group of Swiss Mountain Goats but there isn’t anywhere for them to climb? The answer that South African far...
The Mysterious Moeraki BouldersImage Credit Flickr User geoftheref If you go down to Koekohe beach in New Zealand you can be sure of a big surprise. In front of you, scat...
Skellig Michael – Mysterious Monastery in the AtlanticNine miles off the coast of County Kerry in the west of Ireland there are two small rocky islands peeking out of the Atlantic Ocean. The l...
Hobbiton: Sheep 1, Hobbits 0Image Credit Flickr User Rob & Jules Matamata in New Zealand was the place chosen to film the Hobbiton scenes of the Lord of the Rin...
Pamukkale – Turkey’s Cotton CastleIn Turkish the name literally means Cotton Castle and it is easy to see why it was given that. Yet this geological wonder is also the site...
The Tallest Statues of Jesus Christ in the WorldProbably the most famous statue of Jesus on the planet, known for both size and location, is the statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, B...